Experience Design is Evolving

As the interfaces and systems evolve from being a mere processing device to learning, predicting and anticipating user needs,the way we design experiences is also evolving.Eventhough, UX is often misunderstood for UI but with the emergence of these new technologies the distinction between the both would grow further.

As the system generates data about the users continuously, this information can be used to improve the experience dynamically every time a user uses it. For example, take Google News. The entire feed is personalized based on your actions. There are risks. Users can easily feel powerless on an automated system where the system makes the decision for them. Also ,to learn the system continuously listens and watches the users. All these raise the concern of ethics, privacy, and security.

Using data and machine learning, we can make every interaction of a user into an opportunity to learn what people value and want. But these algorithms have the power to manipulate the behavior of not just individuals but the society at large. Machine learning algorithms make predictions based on the data it learns from. If the data is biased then the system might not be inclusive of all set of users which again raises the concern.

“Computers aren’t good at inclusion. They’re good at exclusion, because they’re only based on past data. The business opportunity for the future-thinking designer is in inclusion.” — John Maeda

Our toolkits should evolve to adapt these new methodologies of computing to be more user-centered making the user feel more comfortable, safe and in control while using these automated systems.